Emirates Global Aluminium and Abu Dhabi Racing-backed Proton Competition just missed out on a podium place in the LMGTE Am category of the season opening World Endurance Championship round, 6 Hours of Silverstone.

Doing driver duties in shifts for the six hours were Khaled Al Qubaisi, German Christian Ried and Austrian Klaus Bachler.

The race was red flagged and ended 25 minutes short of the full six-hour race distance due to heavy rain.

Proton climbed up the ranks from bottom place to finish fourth, a creditable effort given it was a debut for Al Qubaisi and Bachler.

Speaking to Sport360° after the race on Sunday night, Al Qubaisi said: “It is unfortunate that we missed out on a podium place on our debut, but I am happy with our performance.

“When we set out for the race, the goal was to at least finish among the top four and we have achieved that.

“We had the pace, but certain factors played a part in pegging us back early in the race. It began to rain and when I took the wheel I went with wet tyres, because of the rain. 

“But then it stopped raining. I stayed out and did not pit to change tyres because then we would have lost more time,” Al Qubaisi added.

Bachler began the proceedings for Proton, pushing the Porsche 911 RSR to the limit in an attempt to take a better position.

At the end of the first hour, Proton was languishing in 8th but that changed at the end of the second with the team climbing one spot to seventh.

Ried took the team to fourth in between and stayed in that position until Bachler brought the car home safely.

Proton received a little help when the No90 8Star Motorsport Ferrari 458 returned to the pits twice for infringements and suffered a spin, promoting Proton in the rankings.

The Am class was won by 95 Aston Martin Racing with 98 Aston Martin Racing in second and 81 AF Corse completing the podium.